Amazing Race: Unfinished Business – Ep 9 – Riding Off Into The Sunset

No solving of the Mystery of Not Phil’s Voice from last week, but Phil seems alive and well, so there’s that.

Anyway, I have some thoughts regarding this week’s episode, so if you don’t want to know who got eliminated, perhaps you should stop reading. I’ll pause for a moment and provide you with something to occupy your time.

OK, if you are back, you know that our beloved Boys are gone. I know that I will miss the Cowboy music and the unexpected deadpan humor these guys brought week after week. The Boys were a favorite to win this season, so it is a bit of a disappointment to see them bow out in sixth place. However, they just made too many errors this year. Whether it was poor travel choices or bad travelling decisions, it just got bad from time to time. They also were an unexpected SuperLeg away from getting knocked out first.

As it turns out, they were done in by bad navigation AND a poor challenge performance this week. And to some extent, they were also done in by bad luck and the other teams.

I think that any blame that may be sent towards the Trotters for using the U-Turn on the Cowboys, and thus sealing their fate, needs to remember once again something I have been harping on here for quite some time. The U-Turn is not evil, it is not nasty and it is not cheating. It is part of the Race. It is as much a part of the game as breaking an alliance is in Survivor, as taking a dive for a foul is in basketball, or stealing is in Family Feud. The Trotters used it properly too, they were ahead of only one team that they knew of, and they suspected they were near last place. Of course, you use the U-Turn. To be honest, I was surprised the others before them didn’t use it. Even though they were ahead, how often has a team made a wrong turn on the way to the Pit Stop and bled time? It was correct, and kudos to the Boys for not making a big deal over it.

The other thing that got the Boys was the sharing of information between the other teams. The Trotters, and perhaps Garlory, were going to have follow the Boys and repeat the Roadblock. However, Flight Time happened upon Justin along the way, and Justin decided to share the information with his buddy. Flight Time turned around and shared it with Gary. With Zev/Justin and the Sisters already done, and Vixen rocking the challenge on her own, that left poor Jet to fend for himself. If Justin doesn’t share that info, this is a whole different leg. No fault to him, it was a choice. He told his friend – and it led to a team’s demise, a team who was a serious threat. Now, if the Trotters cross the Finish Line before them, well, then maybe he regrets the choice.

I do have a bone to pick with the Show this week, however. That bone is that if you are going to have a Double U-Turn, you really, really need to give the U-Turned teams a shot at recovering. While I can see the drama they were going for – two teams U-Turned with that final task becoming a showdown – they really lost sight of the possibility that one team would get hit and have no reasonable chance of making a comeback. The cheese task took Zev and Justin about an hour to complete. The Trotters would have had to get really, really lost for the Boys to come back. At least give the U-Turned a chance to solve the Roadblock. I didn’t really kill them for the first Double U-Turn this season, but with two teams getting U-Turned it was less evident. Maybe this feature should only be used in the early going, or just do the Detour first. Regardless, it ain’t gonna help the Cowboys.